The invention relates to management and maintenance of telecommunication sites and in particular to automated systems for managing remotely located sites.
Telecommunication companies often have a large number of remotely located equipment sites. These sites typically include racks of telecommunication equipment, main and backup power supplies, equipment cooling systems, and spare part inventory. In larger sites the racks may be arranged in rows forming aisles between them.
The telecommunication equipment sites are frequently numerous, remote from the main office and/or unmanned and undergo frequent changes. Accordingly, telecommunication companies often lose track and control over what equipment and connections are installed, in use, or available for use at any particular site. Even if they are knowledgeable about the installed equipment, they may not have ready access to the information needed to maintain, repair and/or reconfigure the equipment as needs change. In addition, they are often unaware of the rack, power and cooling capacities of the sites and so are not readily able to add additional equipment without jeopardizing operation of the entire site.
These problems are exacerbated by explosive growth in the telecommunication business and by an insufficiency of qualified technicians.
What is desired, therefore, is a system for managing telecommunication sites which enable remote maintenance and reconfiguration of existing equipment by skilled technicians, and remotely engineered installation of new equipment according to expert rules. Also desired is a system which tracks and updates the content, arrangement, configuration and capacity of equipment at remote sites after installation, reconfiguration and/or maintenance.
It is, accordingly, an object of the invention to provide a remote telecommunication site management system which generates a maintenance program for the site from information collected about the site configuration and equipment.
Another object of the invention is to provide a telecommunication site management system which automatically matches a site work request with a technician having appropriate skills.
A further object of the invention is to provide a telecommunication site management system of the above character, which forwards a work request completion report to the client.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a telecommunication site management system of the above character, which updates equipment data and configuration according to the completion of the work request.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a telecommunication site management system of the above character in which a work request drawing is redlined for review and approval to reflect how the work was actually completed.
Still a further object of the invention is to provide a telecommunication site management system for an outsource vendor and in which a client may generate a work request together with a drawing of the site for use by a technician.
Yet still another object of the invention is to provide a telecommunication site management system of the above character in which a technician redlines a drawing of a remote site to show equipment xe2x80x9cas builtxe2x80x9d for approval by the client.
These and other objects and advantages are achieved by one telecommunication site management system in accordance with the invention wherein a computer center is connected either directly or through an appropriate network such as the internet or a private network to various data bases. With the data stored in these data bases the installation, maintenance, updating of the remote telecommunication sites, and emergency servicing of the remote sites with competent personnel can be conveniently and accurately implemented.
These data bases include records of various types such as survey information related to the various telecommunication equipment installed at the remote sites, the particulars of the port connections of the equipment, the available power at the remote sites and environmental factors such as the available cooling capacity at the sites and the heat loads imposed on this by the installed equipment. In addition digital images of the installed racks and cages and other areas of the remote sites are stored. A data base of components representing various telecom equipment from different manufacturers is created in which form factors and performance characteristics are stored for use in creating designs of racks and cages in telecommunication rooms. Another data base includes the maintenance tasks and scheduling of these tasks for the various equipment at the different telecommunication sites. Another data base has records identifying the technicians and their particular expertise, qualifications and certifications for servicing particular telecom equipment.
Access to these data bases is controlled depending as to what work needs to be done. Implementation of service and installation originates through work orders that are communicated to the technicians as these are determined to be needed by the control center or by a client to whom the particular telecommunication site belongs. A client can access the various data bases through the network to determine or verify the actual installations by accessing digital images of a site and make remote designs and changes as appears necessary. Through these various activities on the equipment and system, the data bases, when needed, are updated and maintained current.
When a telecom equipment is installed an automatic verification of the necessary electrical power is made to confirm that there is sufficient electrical power available both at the site and at the particular rack where the equipment is to be installed. A similar verification as to the available cooling capacity can be made. After installation by a technician, an as built report is entered into the system and appropriate data bases updated to reflect the changes together with digital images of the equipment at the site that was serviced.
Hence, with a system and technique in accordance with the invention a client can maintain up to date knowledge of the equipment at its remote sites, while being able to rely upon the expertise and capabilities of another control center to maintain the telecommunication network in operation.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention can be appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodiment in accordance with the invention as described in the specification with reference to the drawings.